Eminem’s restaurant, Mom’s Spaghetti, pops up in L.A. this week

Angelenos who’ve been hoping for one shot, one opportunity, to try Eminem’s self-referential restaurant Mom’s Spaghetti can seize it this week. The Academy Award- and Grammy-winning rapper will be performing at the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday and, as he’s in Los Angeles for the event, he brought a bit of his Italian American Detroit restaurant with him.

On Wednesday Mom’s Spaghetti, which opened in Detroit in September 2021, took over the downtown location of Italian American sandwich shop Uncle Paulie’s Deli, adding its own awning and tattoo-inspired signage of a heart and a fork wrapped by a banner that says “Mom’s Spaghetti.”

Eminem at Detroit Mom’s Spaghetti window.

(Jeremy Deputat)

The pop-up will run through Sunday night with walk-up orders available at downtown’s Uncle Paulie’s, and Postmates delivery orders running out of the Pico and Culver City locations of Pasta Sisters restaurant. The straightforward menu involves red sauce “that tastes like it’s straight from the jar,” sides of garlic butter Texas toast, and “powered” Parmesan.

There’s a vegetarian spaghetti ($10), spaghetti with hand-rolled beef meatballs ($14), spaghetti with vegan meatballs that are made with black beans and quinoa ($15), and the “s’ghetti” sandwich ($13), which piles spaghetti and slices of mozzarella between two slices of Texas toast. On opening day, a line stretched down the block of the downtown pop-up.

The spaghetti from Eminem’s Mom’s Spaghetti pop-up.

(Mom’s Spaghetti)

A promotional video posted to Eminem’s Instagram proclaimed, “Get your sweaters ready, Los Angeles,” as the rapper towered over the downtown L.A. skyline, fake-vomiting — all in a nod to the lyrics of the restaurant’s inspiration, his song “Lose Yourself.”

The in-person L.A. pop-up can be found at 820 S. Spring St., downtown Los Angeles, from 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday. Postmates delivery orders can be placed between noon and 9 p.m. through Sunday.

The Uncle Paulie’s menu will be unavailable during the downtown takeover but can be found at the new sibling location, which is expected to open by Sunday at 8053 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles.